The Quest for the Perfect Gluten Free Cookie

If I do say so myself, I am a great gluten free cook. I love making meals and desserts that the whole group loves without even alerting anyone to the fact that they are eating gluten free. I think that pride stems from the fact that when I first began the gluten free cooking challenge, everything I made was horrible. I threw away more gluten free foods than we ate, especially baked goods, and what we did eat wasn’t really very good, unless you were under what I call “Gluten Delusion.” That’s what happens to your taste buds when you have not had wheat flour for so long, that anything that remotely resembles a baked good from your past seems to be wonderful. You know you are under gluten delusion when others around you take a bite of what you are enjoying, and they spit it out.

The fact that my gluten free son attends college 2000 miles from home has necessitated my quest for great gluten free goodies to send him. Here are some of my favorite online bakeries (in no particular order) that will send great baked goods to cheer you up, or even the most sleep and cookie deprived student ~ and you don’t even need to be under “gluten delusion” to enjoy them.

This list started out much longer, but as I tried different products from lots of places, I was disappointed that I could heartily recommend so few.

Note: Obviously, I couldn’t get to every online bakery item for my taste test, but I’ll give you my vow, that I will never stop until I do =)   Also, if  my taste testers and I tried items from bakeries that are not listed and didn’t like them (and there were many), I opted not to mention them in the spirit of a positive approach instead of a negative one. All the ones listed here are great.

 

BEST COOKIE

 

 Fiddlecakes, Nashville
I wasn’t going to include this bakery since you cannot buy their goodies online yet, but with a cookie this good, I just had to mention them. If Fiddlecakes in Nashville would start shipping their Triple Chocolate Cookie, the world would be a better place. I name this Triple Chocolate Cookie the BEST cookie – gluten free or not! The very sad thing is that you actually have to go to Nashville to get it. They told me that they are hoping to start shipping within the next year.

About ¾ of an inch high, it is full of chocolately moist texture and taste like you never thought possible of a gluten free cookie – or any cookie for that matter. Each cookie must weigh ½ a pound – and add half a pound to each thigh, but soooo worth it. This cookie is indescribable! Their muffins are the softest, most moist GF muffins anywhere as well!

You can get their email newsletter here to keep updated on their shipping plans.

WOW Baking
Located in the Pacific Northwest, they recently moved into their certified GF, dedicated production facility built to meet the growing demand for their products. They offer cookies, cake mix, bakery tubs and boxes of smaller cookies, and brownies.

WOW! These are great. I’ve had the huge, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie that was so good that you would never know its gluten free and full of good for you ingredients! The box of small chocolate chip is my favorite since it’s automatic portion control.

According to their website, people say WOW when they taste them. I can see why!

Available in many stores and online. These rate really high among those you can buy in a store (I’ve seen them at Whole Foods and Kroger.) See the rest of their extensive retail availability here.

Glow Gluten Free
Glow Gluten Free is a line of all natural gluten free cookies developed by a mom who was looking for that perfect and gluten safe cookie for she and her daughter. The story goes that name came out of the glow that her daughter had whenever she ate these yummy cookies.

All they have is four flavors of cookies: Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate, Gingersnap and Snickerdoodle. They are available for online ordering and at some retail outlets.

I’ve had the Double Chocolate, Chocolate Chip and the Snickerdoodle and they are great! They are a little crunchy and salty to be my favorite cookie in the world, since I prefer chewy, yet they are definitely a tasty treat – and if you are a crunchy cookie person, these are the best I’ve had by far.

Gluten Free, Casein Free, Trans Fat Free, Preservative Free

Available online and at some stores – Whole Foods, among them. See their retail availability here.

Mariposa Artisan Crafted Gluten Free
Mariposa is located in the San Francisco Bay Area. They have a large product line of biscotti, brownies, cookie squares, coffee cake, crostini, bagels, pizza crusts and more. All are available for online ordering and in many retail outlets such as Whole Foods.

Their brownies are fabulous! Also recommend – the Apple Spice Cake and Coconut Lemon Squares! I’ve also had their coffee cake, which I find tasty, but a little dry.

Gltuen Free, Dairy Free options

Risotteria
I’ve mentioned this place before in the Restaurant Review Section and Product Review Section.  It’s an awesome Gluten Free Restaurant in Greenwich Village in New York City. Their cookies are some of the best gluten free cookies I’ve ever had.

The NYC Black and White Cookies are $5 each, and shipping is outrageous, but sometimes, you’re just worth it! Chocolate Chip is unbelievable as well. They’ve just added an Oreo Cakester Copy and a Twinkie Copy called the “Winkie.” Can’t wait to try those.

You have to go to NYC and pick them up, or go to the website, download the menu and call them. They ship 2-day fresh out of the oven.

Crave Bakery
Crave is a San Francisco Bakery that specializes in Gluten Free, Casein Free goodies.Online you can only get 3 of their products, but you can order them from small to large quantities: Monster Chocolate Chip Cookie, Pecan Brownie and Dark Chocolate Brownie. They are also in a few retail locations with a few extra products, like beautiful little extra fudgy cakes, for example.

Their Monster Chocolate Chip Cookie is more like a moist, delicious blondie with extra special chocolate chips and their Brownies are super fudgy and soft. Really good!

FREE SHIPPING on orders of $66 or more. (They sell them at Whole Foods, too) These products would be great for a large event, since they sell large orders.

Gluten Free, Casein Free

 

 

Sunflour Baking Co.
These are awesome, cakey, chewy Gluten Free and Vegan cookies. Their Premium Cinnamon Cookies melt in your mouth! That one’s my favorite, but the Chocolate Chip are also super delicious! Free shipping over $20. Great holiday and special occasion gift baskets available online, and large order bulk shipping. I’ve also bought them at Whole Foods.

So many bakeries, so little time! There is much to be done to get to all of their products! Please post your great bakery finds below!

Note: I have paid for all items specifically mentioned here. None of these bakeries sent me anything free (except for Jill at Glow, who really wanted me to try the Double Chocolate since the online retailer was out of stock. I purchased the other Glow cookies.)